"After spending a year in the Novitiate, I firmly believe that every person who thinks they are called to a religious vocation should make the jump."
BR. JOSHUA HEINERIKSON, OP
TAKE A MOMENT TO
MEET BR. JOSHUA!
If you could be taught by any deceased Dominican, who would you pick? What question(s) would you ask him or her? (Friar, Sister, Lay Fraternity, etc.)
This is probably a popular answer, but I would love to learn the Summa from St. Thomas himself. I would ask him about his discernment and the people he encountered along the way.
What's your favorite book of the Bible and why?
I love the Gospel according to St. John for its theme of the divinity of Jesus and its theological/symbolic depth.
What's the most interesting or pointless fact you know?
Due to the uniform expansion of the Universe, every point in the universe can be seen as the center of the Universe.
What game show do you think you could win, and why?
If we got a group of Dominicans together, we could easily win a game of Family Feud.
TIPS FROM BR. JOSHUA:
How old were you when you realized you wanted to pursue Religious Life? What was that process like for you?
I was a junior at Benedictine College, walking back from a "Pizza, Priests, and Monks" event, and I remember feeling that if I kept going to these events, the joy I felt in these meetings would prompt me to become a religious. Of course, I kept going, as they kept giving me pizza, and while I was walking back to my apartment one day, I knew in my heart that I would die wearing a habit, but I wasn't sure which one. That discernment of the different religious orders would end on October 4, 2023, when I googled what I was looking for. "Is there a kind of monk that travels, teaches, and preaches?" I landed on our opcentral website, and after reading that, I emailed the vocations director.
Any words of encouragement?
You can spend your weeks and months in the school of perpetual discernment or make a decision. After spending a year in the Novitiate, I firmly believe that every person who thinks they are called to a religious vocation should make the jump.